To Those who love those "before" and "after" projects

Our humble Master Bath "before"

"During" We tore down the walls where mold was growing

Ah! New walls for our shower!

"After" new shower, sink, mirror! No mold!

"During"
"After"

Hope = Strong Willed to the Max

OK! OK! We finally had to admit it! Our little 31 pounder is stronger than both her parents put together. I started to have my sneaking suspicions when other parents' eyeballs would pop out while their jaws dropped to the ground when I casually mentioned that Hope's Time Outs are only 1 hour long today. Forget that ole' teaching to put a kid in timeout up to their age + minutes (ie: 2 years = 2 minutes). I would have to recommend the month + minutes (31 months = 31 minutes).

Now, you may think I'm being a nasty parent, but this long time out does NOT faze Hope one bit. Do you think she's crying in remorse and feeling like she was abandoned? Nope! She's kicking the walls, pounding the floors, watering the tiles. You name it! She's done it to prove that she's still in charge! We wait, like the "Parenting with Love and Logic" book tells us to do, for our dearest to say she's ready to be 怪 (guai) or good before she's allowed some silent time to ponder what her next move will be. When she comes out, she will give us a hug and move on with life.

There have been times, when Hope has told us that we have misbehaved and we need to go into Time Out. Also, we've tried to do the "one, two, three or your out". Well, she's now telling us "one, two, three...". This last week, dad had to give her a loud smack on the bottom for being absolutely deviant and defiant to all our requests. He tried to make it loud instead of painful. It worked because after her 1 minute cry, she looked at mom and said, "if I was bigger, I'd give dad a smack as well." Sigh.

Well, we finally got "The New Strong-Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson and are looking for lights at the end of this tunnel. Boy, do we feel like failures when our child puts up her dukes instead of compliantly listens. Oh, Lord. We pray that this strong will can be used to further your kingdom instead of destroy our little daughter's precious soul.

I can say with confidence, however, that when she's around other kids, she definitely won't be bullied by them. She's had to be reprimanded for shoving the boys in Sunday School...because they tried to take her toy.

Here's to my future. I'm a home executive right now!

Career Inventory Test Results Extroversion ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||||||||| 76% Orderliness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 80% Altruism |||||||||||| 36% Inquisitiveness ||||||||||||||| 50% You are an Executive, possible professions include - program designer, attorney, administrator, office manager, chemical engineer, sales manager, logistics consultant, franchise owner, new business developer, personnel manager, investment banker, labor relations, management trainer, credit investigator, mortgage broker, corporate team trainer, environmental engineer, biomedical engineer, business consultant, educational consultant, personal financial planner, network integration specialist, media planner/buyer.

Take Free Career Test
personality tests by similarminds.com